#605 From Coffee Bars to Construction - Jose Berlanga’s 4X Success

What does it really take to bounce back, again and again, and build multimillion-dollar success across four industries?

In this inspiring episode of Talking with the Experts, host Rose Davidson sits down with Jose Berlanga—serial entrepreneur, mentor, and author—to unpack his extraordinary journey of perseverance and transformation. From his beginnings in Mexico City to co-founding Houston’s renowned Tricon Homes, Jose’s story is a testament to what’s possible when resilience, strategy, and purpose align.

Jose shares how he built wealth and impact across four completely different sectors: petrochemical machinery imports, Italian coffee bars, residential construction, and land development. With candid insights and hard-won wisdom, he explains how hands-on leadership, employee empowerment, and values-based decision-making fuel long-term success.

This episode dives into:

• Why perseverance and curiosity are your greatest entrepreneurial tools
• How Jose navigated industry shifts and came out stronger
• Lessons from negotiating thousands of deals and leading large teams
• The mindset needed to rebuild after setbacks

Listeners will walk away with practical insights on scaling businesses, building influence in competitive markets, and staying aligned with your bigger vision—even when the road gets tough.

Whether you’re a startup founder, seasoned entrepreneur, or simply someone who’s faced business burnout, Jose’s journey offers motivation and actionable advice.

💬 “Success is never final. But failure doesn’t mean you stop.” — Jose Berlanga

🎧 Tune in now to be inspired by the story behind the success.

🔗 Subscribe, share, and leave a review if Jose’s story moved you!

✨ CONNECT WITH JOSE

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-berlanga-900a9518/

Website: https://joseberlanga.com/

📌 PROMOTION https://joseberlanga.com/books/

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Transcript

Voiceover | 00:01
Welcome to Talking With The Experts. Here we discuss all things business, by business owners, for business owners. Here is your host, Rose Davidson. 

 Rose | 00:12
Hello, welcome to Talking With The Experts. I'm your host, Rose Davidson from rosedavidson.com.au. Today, it's my very great pleasure to introduce you to Jose Berlenga, and we're going to be talking about his extraordinary story of perseverance. Now, Jose is... And an entrepreneur from Mexico City with over 35 years of experience and has made a significant mark in Houston's real estate industry, notably through co-founding Tricon Homes. His diverse background, including degrees in business administration, economics and philosophy, has fuelled his success in various sectors, making him a source of inspiration and mentorship in the business community. He's the author of The Business of Homebuilding and is working on his second book, which I am sure he will share details of during this interview. Jose, welcome to Talking With The Experts. It's lovely to meet you and I hope that coffee is nice and warm. 

 Jose | 01:13
It's perfect. It is lovely to be here with you, Rose. How are you? 

 Rose | 01:19
I am very well, thank you very much. Now, tell me a little bit about your background, Jose, and how you ended up where you are today. 

 Jose | 01:28
Well, let's talk a little bit about it. By the way, I want to say hello to your audience all the way in Australia. That is fascinating to be talking across the planet, across the globe. 
 So my journey is... It's been a very interesting one of entrepreneurship and as you call it, perseverance and resilience and all of those difficult words that we have to live in. Just to put things in perspective, here's where the perseverance is. I've been now an entrepreneur. I've been a business owner, business operator for... Almost 40 years, almost four decades. And it not only went by very fast, That word means, that word of persistence combined with perseverance means that you Drown yourself in your activities to the point where time just goes by. Where you really forget your surroundings. And focus on your mission and your objectives. And before you know it, time goes by. 
 So that's been my career. I've had a difficult upbringing, difficult childhood. Full of setbacks and issues, a lot of hospitalization, due to a fire, to an accident. Car crash. But we'll skip all that for another time. That was the bulk of my childhood was dealing with a lot of that and a lot of learning disorders. That came with it by skipping school so much during very important years. Now I talk to my children a lot about it. When they don't want to go to school, they don't want to study, they're finding it difficult to do this and that, and I keep repeating to them that it is better for them to learn how to learn while they're young. Because when you don't go through that process of education at the early years, it becomes much more difficult down the road. And, and that was my case. I always struggled to learn with, I always struggled to, pay attention to focus. But anyway, At some point I began my business career and always wanted to be my own boss and have my own business. And run my life the way that I wanted to run my life. Although in a funny way, your business ends up running your life more than the other way around. And that's been the... The trend? 

 Rose | 04:26
Absolutely. Now there is an absolute emotional roller coaster to owning a business, Jose. I know that for a fact. And how can we as people, humans navigate those highs and lows without losing the drive to, you know, have a great business. 

 Jose | 04:45
Well, I often say that you have to know it up front. You have to be realistic about what entrepreneurship means. Just know it. Don't live in fantasy land and know that it's all going to be nice and fun and exciting and simple and successful and that there's going to be constant progress. If you put those ideas in your mind, you might... Set yourself up to fail because not only nothing is easy in life, but starting a business is extremely difficult. Most of all, building it. And remaining in business. 
 So The number one recommendation is to know it upfront and to set the right expectations, to know that it's going to be long days. Hard work, difficulties along the way, nothing is ever going to happen the way you plan it, and you're going to have to be ready to deal with it and solve problems as you go. Put that in your mind, prepare for it mentally. And know that it's very possible. It's been done. Every day by many successful entrepreneurs out there that own their businesses, but they put their entire heart and soul and time and energy and conviction. Into building something that matters. 
 So when you know that upfront and you prepare for it, you have better chances. 

 Rose | 06:22
Absolutely. I'm what's called a serial entrepreneur. I get all these great ideas. And I'll get halfway through them or three quarters of the way through them. I don't, sort of dive in headfirst and then work out the details later. Trouble is I don't, always finish what I start. 
 So I had this great idea about writing a book and I was going to write a book about all, get my guests, my podcast guests to contribute to the thing. I didn't hear back from anyone. 
 So it was a great idea. I just sent out this email to everybody randomly. And I thought, yeah, everyone's going to want to jump on board and get in this book and everything. Meh. No. Crickets. It's like... 

 Jose | 07:12
Thank you. Yeah. 

 Rose | 07:14
I understand. And you feel like such a failure. 
 I mean, I felt like a failure. I thought, why doesn't anybody want to be in this book? But the point was, I didn't go about it the right way. I just sent out this email saying, hoping that everyone would jump on board and be as enthusiastic and as excited as I was about the whole process without giving them details about how it was going to all work. 
 So when you're starting a business, you've got to know. The steps to take. Along the way rather than just jumping in and hoping for the best. 

 Jose | 07:49
Absolutely. There's a lot of planning involved in starting a business. By the way, you're one of the serial entrepreneurs, the courageous ones, because there are other ones who actually have the opposite reaction. They think about it too much. They procrastinate. They worry too much about what if are things going to work out? Do I have what it takes to be successful? 
 So there are those two extremes. I am with you. I am one of those. Very intrepid, very serial entrepreneurs that takes, that does very little thinking and very little planning many times. I've felt the same way throughout my failed attempts, throughout my career. I feel discouraged, I feel... Failed in some way, because you invest a lot of time and effort and money into goals that don't necessarily get to where you want. Where you want them to get. And again, it's understanding that this is part of the journey. There really is, as an entrepreneur, very common, we have more ideas. Then we have time and that we have the organizational skills to really execute them. 
 So perhaps as business owners or the type of personality that likes to start things, you have to first of all, you have to be very careful as to what business you select and how you go about it to starting it. One of the There are pros and cons of having the personality of an explorer. You want to do a lot. But there's not enough time. You love business, you love entrepreneurship, but you don't necessarily have the skills or the experience. Knowing that you want to take that route, that type of career, you have to sit down for a minute and figure out, determine precisely what it is that you want out of it. And pick one. Picking too many ideas is counterproductive, unless you're already a very seasoned, very wealthy entrepreneur that can begin to diversify time and investments. But in the early stages, you have to find one idea and one concept that you're very passionate about, that you really enjoy, that you understand, that you have a little bit of experience. Another mistake that entrepreneurs make is to fantasize, to dream about the business world and jump into an opportunity that they don't fully understand what it's about. That's a huge mistake that many entrepreneurs make, like the example you were commenting, your experience. I've had several of those experiences. Where I started something because it sounded fascinating. It sounded like the next invention and a wonderful potential for growth. But I didn't really understand the industry and I didn't know much about it. 
 So not only doing your research, but sometimes even participating in the industry for a while. Through working for somebody, through doing a lot of research, through partnering with the technical people, the technical team that have done this before. And that improves your chances of becoming successful in any given industry. But essentially, You have to create something I'm very you Fond of. Is creating business plans. For example, my book, business of home building is a little bit of a little bit about that. You How to start your business, how to plan it, how to think of so many things that building and starting a business represents organizing your thoughts, making sure that you're not missing anything, that all those easy, simple and obvious, you may not be thinking about it when you're starting a business. 
 So organizing Your thoughts before the execution and creating a business plan helps you answer a lot of questions the why the how and Who is your consumer? What is your audience? What are you looking for? How are you going to differentiate yourself? What is the product about? What is the mission? 
 So many things that come with the territory of starting a business. And we can go on and on, but yes, it is very difficult for one single ingredient to... To not be there for the whole equation not to work. 

 Rose | 12:57
Yeah, absolutely. You've got to take little steps at a time, not great big leaps. 
 I mean, because if you take great big leaps, you're going to miss something. It's like jumping stones, really. You might end up in the water. 

 Jose | 13:10
And it often does. Statistically, there are more chances of failure than success. And a lot of it is lack of planning, lack of sticking to it. Because there's the other side. I have always, in my business experiences, even the ones that have some experience in it, faced a lot of resistance and faced a lot of pressure. Negative. Steps in the process and setbacks. And if you don't have the strength and the mentality and the endurance to stick to it, even if you understand what you're doing, there's a chance that you're going to just move on and stop the business. 
 So this happens to a lot of people. You have to have that resistance and that endurance to deal with the good and the bad. 

 Rose | 14:12
Absolutely. And you know, is, As business owners, as entrepreneurs, you know, we're often faced with the failures and we know we lose our confidence in ourselves and our ability to do stuff. 
 You know, imposter syndrome rears its ugly head and then there's, you know, the self-doubt and then you start beating yourself up because, you know, this... Idea of yours didn't work. 
 So how can we as business owners, how can we turn failure into confidence and master that out of learning, adapting and thriving after these setbacks? 

 Jose | 14:50
For many years, I would spend too much time thinking about the problems generated by my business, losing sleep. Constantly stressing. . And at some point, I realized that I wasn't worrying and I wasn't stressing. I was problem solving. When I would wake up in the middle of the night constantly thinking about all the things that were occurring in my business and the things that were not going the way that I planned, eventually I realized that all of that worrying was helping me. There's a good side to stressing and worrying and in spending time thinking about problems, as long as you manage it, as long as you understand it and recognize it and know how to regulate it. Particular mentality of pressure and anxiety is what gives you that drive. Eventually, I started using the anxieties to get things done. One of the wonderful things about entrepreneurs, they're very antsy. They think too much. They worry too much. They stress too much. But if you grab all of that energy, and put it into action, into solving problems, into making As you mentioned, taking small steps in improving things every day All of that worrying turns into action. All of that anxiety turns into problem solving. And as you recognize it and understand it, the fears of failure start turning into more of a confident personality, which over the years. I began to understand that Yes, I may be concerned about business, but now I know that I have the ability to make progress and to fix things as they come. 
 So now, even if I have those concerns about operating a business, deep in my mind, in the back of my mind, I know that I'm capable of solving most of the things that get thrown at me. So it just takes time and experience. Yes. 

 Rose | 17:17
Yeah, I think so too. I think you're right. 
 You know, sometimes there's a little bit of stress It can be helpful. Overthinking can be helpful. As long as you don't let it get to the point where that's not all you're doing and you're not enjoying anything else about the journey along the way. It's important that you enjoy the journey of starting your business and working in your business. Or on your business as well and keep, you know, striving to get better each day. 

 Jose | 17:51
Yes. Just know that every attempt is... Every hour that you devote to your progress, to your business, is getting you somewhere. Even though if there's periods of time where it doesn't feel like it feels like nothing is going well, nothing is moving forward. As a matter of fact, in business, sometimes you feel like you're going backwards. And it does happen because you're not making progress while you're investing time and money. 
 So sometimes you fall back. And maybe you put more money in not seeing the results yet, But if you have faith in your mission, and you understand That that's what it takes little by little. One day you wake up and realize that, yes, you are making progress and you are getting closer to a successful experience. But in the meantime, it does tend to feel and look a little bit dark. I felt it over the years. There are in many moments, interestingly enough, there are more dark moments, more scary moments, more negative and difficult days than the positive ones in the world of entrepreneurship. But those good ones, those moments of progress supersede all of the bad ones. They make up for all of the many challenges. Bad moments during your business and those fill you up with energy and allow you to re-energize yourself. 

 Rose | 19:32
Yeah, absolutely. You know, When we're in entrepreneurship and, you know, when we're getting into business, there's a lot of buzzwords. That go around and people use all these acronyms and buzzwords or pivot. I don't like that word pivot, but I haven't come up with another terminology yet. I'll have to stick with it. But, you know, how can we be successful beyond all the buzzwords that we're supposed to be. 

 Jose | 20:04
Conviction. Conviction in what you're doing and in yourself. You are so right. There's a lot of... Words and cliches and buzzwords that are easier said than done. This is the fact that there's a lot of advice. There are a lot of people out there giving you recommendations and telling you that things are going to work out and that they are easy, but the only one that can provide that level of confidence and confidence in that persistence, in the energy. In the self Ability. To fuel yourself with energy is yourself. No one can give you the ambition and the strength to keep going. 
 So it has, unfortunately, no matter what those buzzwords are, objectives, and the mission and the cost and the conviction has to come from within. From yourself. If you don't have it in you, it's very hard to obtain it through all of those messages that you see out there. The first step is to know that you can do it. Convince yourself. Mind over matter. I love that little buzzword. It is a buzzword. But it's true. If your mind convinces itself that it can do it, and you put the time and the energy and the effort into it, there's a likelihood that you will make things happen. But you have to convince your mind. 

 Rose | 21:55
And mine's a very powerful thing, isn't it? I mean, you know, We often, as humans, tell ourselves that we're not good at something, but have we actually tried this thing? 
 You know, how do we know we're not good at it if we haven't tried it? 

 Jose | 22:11
Yes, and you have to try it. Something that I remind myself when I'm concern or fearful of trying something new, of starting something that I think might be scary or dangerous, I try to... Put myself. 10 or 20 or 30 years from now and try to feel how I'm going to feel at that moment if I don't attempt everything that matters to me. 
 So this is something that might be helpful. Another buzzword, you know, we only live once and it sounds easy, but it's very profound. If you sit around and figure out what it is that I'm going to regret a few decades from now, Thank you. And sincerely. Talk to yourself and understand what is the life that I want to live? What is the impact that I want to cause to myself, to the people around me, to the world? What am I doing with what I was given? With the talents that I was given, with the abilities that I possess, am I doing enough? Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing everything I can to become the best version of myself? As you think through those thoughts, You start building yourself a little more confident in attempt more things. That is something that has fueled my energy over and over that I often think of how am I going to feel today? A few years down the road if I don't do what I feel that I need to be doing right now with my career and then I jump headfirst Because I will always have Less regret if I fail than if I didn't try. And it is true. It is true. Even now, I have zero regrets as many times as I have failed in business, in so many things that I have gone wrong, in so many sacrifices that I've made over the years. I still wouldn't change anything. I tried, I gave it my best. Nothing ever happened the way that I planned it. But ultimately, I achieved the level of success in financial freedom that now it was all worth it. But it took years. 

 Rose | 24:39
Yeah, absolutely. And anyone who says that they're an instant success has got rocks in their head because I don't think anyone. Doesn't matter where you are or who you are. No one is an instant success. They have said that it takes 10 years to be an instant success. 

 Jose | 24:56
At the very least, I would say the cycle of turning anything, any idea, any concept into a successful company or concept is 10 year minimum. And not every individual is willing to invest that level of time. Time and sacrifice for that period of time. 
 So you have to know if you're the type of person that wants to invest your life putting effort in putting the level of energy because here's how it goes. When you work for someone, when you're just going the simpler route, you are during the process perhaps enjoying your life a little more. You leave work in the office, you leave your responsibilities and you move on and have a personal life and get to do a lot of other stuff. And as an entrepreneur, you bring your work and your responsibilities with you all day, every day, weekends, nights, holidays, 365 days a year. And the question is, do I want to live like that? To obtain what I want and to reach the goals that I want to reach. That is a very profound question. Is that what I want? Entrepreneurship is not for everybody. 
 Some people want to live a simpler life and just somewhat blow through things. And it doesn't make one better than the other. It's just a choice. Do you want to live a more pressured life? More stressful, more intense lifestyle but have what comes with it, which is success, owning your life, perhaps financial freedom. Do you want to go through that rocky road and invest that level of pressure and intention that's going to come with it throughout the years? 
 Some people may choose the other route and say, no, I don't want to live like that. I want to be more relaxed throughout the process. And they'll have a wonderful life the same, but it'll be a completely different system. 
 So I chose the roller coaster style versus the merry-go-round. You know, the one where you're just living a normal, stable, consistent life. I just perhaps needed and wanted the excitement that the roller coaster came with. 

 Rose | 27:46
Absolutely. I love that analogy. I think it's wonderful. Tell me a little bit about the business of home building. Where can people find it and what is in it that We'll... Excite the reader. 

 Jose | 28:00
The business of home building is something that it's my first book and not my last. I have many more books in my mind, information that I want to share with an audience about business, about entrepreneurship, about adversity. And the first one is a book that has a lot to do with an industry that I invested decades of my life, but it has a lot of... Entrepreneurship in it, a twist of entrepreneurship, although it discusses the construction industry, the home building industry. It's very much about how to plan and how to start and how to build a successful business. It gives you the tools of what are some of the ingredients that a business must possess. In order to move forward and in order to grow and remain in business, how to differentiate yourself and how to understand the process simply. It was a wonderful experience putting this book together. And I think it would benefit. Any type of entrepreneur or anyone interested in the business world. It has a little bit of everything within the business world for the audience. But yeah, the next one, as I continue to write, they start going into different topics and perhaps more broader topics related to entrepreneurship. 

 Rose | 29:36
Wonderful. 

 Jose | 29:37
And by the way, you can find it anywhere, Amazon or all of the platforms that sell and distribute books. 

 Rose | 29:46
Wonderful. If you want to know more about Jose, you can find him on LinkedIn and on his website at joseberlenga.com, and I'm sure that you'll find lots of interesting things on there. And your book is on there on the website, Jose, where people can download grab access to it Wonderful. 

 Jose | 30:06
Sure. Yes. 

 Rose | 30:10
Have you got any other things that you would like to share before we go today? 

 Jose | 30:16
Well, no, it's been wonderful. I hope to travel to your country one day. It's one of the places that for one reason I've done a lot of traveling in my life, but I have not made it to Australia. I met wonderful people from there and I... Hope that business continues to make progress. And that we all give it a shot if we have that itch. That's my only and final comment. If you have that curiosity of owning your business, do it. Figure it out. Save some money. Put some money aside and little by little figure out how to do it because it's worth it at the end of the day. It's an experience that you cannot explain until you live it. 

 Rose | 31:05
Absolutely. Just stay curious. I think that is probably the most important profound thing that I have heard in a long time is to stay curious and just go for it if you think it's worth it. Try it. If you don't try it, you'd never know. 

 Jose | 31:22
Absolutely. 

 Rose | 31:23
Jose, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me today. 

 Jose | 31:28
Thank you, Rose. It's been great being here with you. 

 Rose | 31:30
Bye-bye. See you now. 

 Speaker 4 | 31:32
You've been listening to Talking With The Experts, hosted by Rose Davidson. Make sure you have a look at our back catalogue over at talkingwiththeexperts.com. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss out on any episode. We look forward to your company next time.